Love

Big Idea

Tension: What is love for God?

Resolution: Love for God is how we mirror back to God the same love that he has given to us which overflows into a love for others.

Exegetical Idea: We love God by mirroring back to God the same love that he has given to us which overflows into a love for others.

Theological Idea: God’s love stirs up a love for him and others in our hearts.

Homiletical Idea: Because God has loved me in Christ, I can love him and others.

Outline

The Story of the Magi (Matthew 2:1-11)

Jews from Babylonia

A treasuring and a love for the God who saves his people. (Matt 6:19-21)

They were simply God’s people trying to be faithful to God’s law - Deut 6:4-9

Deuteronomy 6:4–9 (ESV)

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Today, I want to persuade you that the love of God is the best, the ultimate, the most satisfying thing that you can do with your life.

What do we mean by love for God? Let me give you four things

We do not mean love for any God in particular. In fact, I would tell you that cultivating a love for Allah, or mother earth, or any God other than the God of the Bible is a counterproductive measure. Rather, the God of the Bible is the one and only God, the God who covenants with his people, who saves his people.

By love, the Shema thinks submission is necessary. I mean obeying his laws. I mean commiting myself to… (decalogue backwards)

By love, the Shema means that we make a commitment to make God the priority in every realm of our lives. It means in our families. That we tell our spouses about teh great things GOd has done, that we raise our kids up to follow Christ. That we live in a house where we make this God central. It means in our schedule. You show me your time, the things that you regularly commit to, and I will show you your loves.

By love, the Shema is all inclusive. It means with all our selves, and it means with every sphere of our lives. It means that we commit ourselves to an ongoing, lifelong relationship. This phrase “you shall love” is not a one and done thing. Maybe there was a time in your life where you felt an intense longing and love and affection for God, maybe at a VBS or church service. That is great. But the love that God commands from us is not a box to be checked, it is a lifestyle to be lived.

Let me propose some alternatives

Why can’t I just love myself? Probably the biggest way that this is strange to our world is that our world prioritizes first and foremost a love of self. Someone who is full of self pity, self-loathing and self-hating is someone who we can’t just stomach.

Now, I certainly don’t want to encourage you to be self-hating. But here’s the thing that I’ve discovered after being a pastor for a while. Most of the people who try the hardest to love themselves are the people who hate themselves the most. Why? Because the more we try to give ourselves the love which only God deserves, the more we discover we are completely unworthy of that love. Let me give you two words that don’t need any elaboration, although that won’t stop me: Michael Scott.

Those of you who have seen “the Office” know that there is nobody that tries to love themselves more and who spends more time trying to get others to love them than Michael Scott. And there’s nobody who knows they’re more unworthy of it than Michael Scott. Need I go further? I will. Scotts Tots… The only redeemable part of Michael Scott is when he takes his focus off of himself.

Why can’t I just love my neighbor? Maybe you think, why can’t I just love my neighbor, after all, didn’t Jesus say whatever you do for the least of these you do also for me? He actually said it evem more expressly in 1 John. He said, whoever doesn’t love his neighbor doesn’t love God because God is love.

The problem is, when you give your neighbor the love that only God deserves, the more you will crush them. I’m not saying you don’t love your wife, your kids, others the way God loves each other.

When I do premarital counseling, one of the things that I repeatedly tell young couples is that your spouse can’t be your everything. You need to give them permission to be imperfect. Do you know how many kids have been seriously and permanently damaged because their parents expected them to be what they could never be.

Transition: Now, that’s just an argument why you shouldn’t love yourself as if you were God and love your neighbor as if they were God. But why should we love the God of the Bible, the God of SCriptures, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

Why should I love God?

Because God is good. (James 1:17)

Because God loved me before I ever loved him (1 John 4:10).

Because God loved me when I was a sinner and god-hater (Romans 5:8)

Because God loved me enough to give himself for me (Galatians 2:20)

Because God loved me enough to give himself to me (1 Peter 1:8-9).

"It is God who wants himself to be loved, not in order to gain any reward for himself but to give to those who love him an eternal reward-namely himself, the object of their love." - Augustine

Because God is worthy (Revelation 5:9-10, 12)

How can I start loving God?

You can’t. But God can give you a love for him (Rom 5:5)

I think before you can have this love relationship with God, you have to believe in him. You have to be born again. YOu have to reach out and grab hold of him by faith.

How can I grow in my love for God?

I would say - spend time with him. <Park Bench>

What if my heart is cold?

Why is my heart cold? Is it a sin that I need to confess, am I seeing God as something less than lovely? Am I overextended? Am I just a dry person?

Stir up the coals. “We don’t need to wait for God’s love to act. Often times doing the action brings about the love that we don’t experience, feel, or sense.” - Peter Small. You can’t love God from the sidelines. “As long as you keep the actions theoretical, you will keep teh love theoretical.”

It is helpful to me to find fresh ways to engage God’s Word. So while during the week I work my way through small chunks of SCripture, foten on teh weekend I’ll pick a long book of the Bible and try to get my whole way through it. Or, I’ll change up a translation I use. Or I’ll use the Be Thou My vision or Every Moment HOly books to help me engage in new ways with GOd’s WOrd.